John Mellencamp’s Life, Death, Love and Freedom is a mature, melancholy and mesmerizing work about all of the aforementioned, especially death. With emotionally appropriate production from T Bone Burnett LDL&F isn’t exactly “whistling past the graveyard” but it’s about as close as you’ll ever get.

After one listen I have resolved never to listen to it: by myself; in the dark; after a really bad day. That it was in a Super HD stereo format that is as pristine and as close to source as you’ll get outside of the studio helped jack up the spooky factor about a gazillion percent.

And the Death in the title isn’t merely our returning to dust. While it seems that Mellencamp is looking in a mirror and singing to himself, as on “Longest Days” when he accepts that “sometimes you get sick, and you don’t get better,” I believe he’s also holding up that mirror for us all to take a peek into. He’s telling us that we need to seriously evaluate where we are as people and a nation. What he seems to be saying is that after the last seven years of heartbreaking lunacy our country may no longer be a youthful 234. We may have gotten old before our time. With our ideals, spirit and moral compass way out of kilter perhaps we need to reflect and consider “Life is short, even in its longest days.”

From that acoustic opening Mellencamp slowly peels away some very deep and emotional layers to reveal his state of mind, and in turn the state of our nation. Whether Singing about “Jena” (Louisiana) or wondering “what the hell happened to this place?” (on “Without a Shot”), he paints an honest portrait, both impressionistic and detailed. He sounds sad, and near surrender, but still has hope that somebody will pick up the ball and sing “A Brand New Song.”

As I sat listening to this beautiful and somewhat stark recording my
thoughts drifted to the Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and
how this release feels like a modern version of those slices of
Americana. From the heart of America, without affectation and
uncomplicated.

Mellencamp has done himself a great service by enlisting T Bone Burnett
to produce. His somewhat angular look at music gives these songs
gravitas, allows Mellencamp to reach deeper into himself than he’s ever
attempted before and come out with his, if not best, most meaningful
and important release.

The music still sounds like Mellencamp but through an extra-strength
Burnett filter. From the vocals over skittering drums of “My Sweet
Love” to the Dylanesque organ fills on “Troubled Land,” you’ll find
Burnett’s fingerprints on the production but, as usual, it’s not so
intrusive as to make you forget who you’re listening to.

And for pure listening pleasure, this Super High Def download is
psychotically and intensely awesome. The instruments all sound like
they’re supposed to, the room tones are authentic, and the vocals are
so immediate and well recorded you feel as if you’re having a
conversation with Mellencamp. On rockers like “Jena” the snare snaps,
the kick booms and the overtones from the amps are audible. I’ve never
heard this much detail in a recording, ever.

I don’t want to make Life, Death, Love and Freedom out to be too gloomy
because it would be a shame for you to walk away from a recording where
an artist has gotten it exactly right. He’s written the perfect songs
for his oeuvre, he’s chosen the perfect producer, and he’s allowed it
to be released in a format that could potentially reveal any number of
flaws. But it is a dark record and it elicits serious reflection from
any listener who is so inclined. When he sings of people who are
“Handing out verses of scripture like we wrote it down ourselves” he’s
definitely not trying to placate his fan base, and when he asks Jesus
to give him “A Ride Back Home” because he’s too cowardly to kill
himself he’s not catering to a music business geared towards
15-year-olds. He’s opening up something raw that is inside us all. The
15-year-olds just haven’t gotten around to investigating it yet. (But
they will.)

After repeated listens it’s hard for me to even imagine that this is
the same man who recorded “Jack and Diane.” Not that his voice has
changed all that much or his songwriting style drastically altered, but
that he’s matured to the place where he can truly be the voice of the
common man. Maybe that’s just me growing older, but all I know is that
at this moment in time John Mellencamp’s midwestern sensibilities and
love for America have lined up completely with my west coast version.

And that’s something else I never would have imagined.

Sound
I downloaded Life, Death, Love and Freedom from the MusicGiants HD
website www.musicgiants.com. The download took awhile but was worth
every minute and the website itself was easy to navigate and the
transactions smooth.

MusicGiants says their HD files deliver sound quality up to seven times
better than other digital download providers, and they encode their
files in the WMA lossless audio codec, which at a sample rate of
44.1/16, is a bit-for-bit mathematical match to a CD.

Elliot Mazer (famous for his work with Neil Young, among others)
creates their Super HD files using a proprietary hardware and software
system that does bit-for-bit transfers of DVD-A recordings and turns
them into WMAL files. LDL&F is the first album ever released in the CODE format, a proprietary audio technology developed by T Bone
and his team of engineers that creates high-definition audio files they
say are virtually indistinguishable from the original master tapes.

The hard copy CODE version of LDL&F is a DVD that comes packaged
with a standard CD version of the album, attempting to cover all
compatibility issues. The CODE disc is supposed to be playable on
virtually all DVD machines, including stand-alone players and computer
drives. Word is the DVD's content can be copied into most computer
music software (including iTunes) and can then be downloaded onto
personal music players such as the iPod. A vinyl version has also been
released.

For SACD Mazer uses proprietary gear (built by a division of Sony) in
concert with DCS format converters to transfer the music to the PCM
format. MusicGiants states that “even though there is a big difference
between PCM and DSD, various engineers from the record companies have
done comparisons of our files to their masters and all are pleased.”

Elliot wrote to say there’s “No degradation on download from MusicGiants
Super HD files. I just a/b'd them against the source and they are indistinguishable.”

When asked about burning to DVD and/or CD (LDL&F is DRM-free), he
responded, “You can put it on a DVD as a data file and that would work
fine. Putting it on a CD is a waste of time and great sound.
Technically, there is no good way to do this. 96 does not divide
evenly into 44.1.”

And for all you Vinyl vs. Digital warriors Mazer says, “Vinyl sounds
good if you wear gloves, have a $4,000 turntable in a clean-room, a
$10,000 pre-amp, and you only listen to it once. BD has the potential
of better sound if the producers create it that way.”

Which is my way to let you know he’s currently transferring Neil’s
catalog (and Led Zeppelin’s!) into the Blu-Ray format and says that
Time Fades Away will be included. That makes me extremely happy.